


Until Now

by TheWhiteLily



Series: Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2017 [15]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 19:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11584737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWhiteLily/pseuds/TheWhiteLily
Summary: A client comes to knock on the door of 221B.





	Until Now

**Author's Note:**

> For JWP #23: I Came Here to Talk About the Red-Headed League and I’m Honestly Feeling  
> So Attacked Right Now. (Examine Holmes and/or Watson from the POV of one  
> of their clients.)

Somewhere above, the tortured wailing of a violin abruptly cut off, and Alicia hesitated, still shaking, her hand hovering over the knocker.

She shouldn’t be here at all. Mycroft Holmes had refused her and he wasn’t wrong: the man _was_ sometimes… _useful_ , no matter how repugnant.

But enough was enough. No one  _owned her_.

Before she could knock, the door sprang open and Sherlock Holmes loomed in the opening. He looked her over, his nostrils flaring slightly.

“MRS HUDSON!” he bellowed over his shoulder; Alicia jumped again.

His eyes fixed back onto her: on her hands, clutched one inside the other; her cheek, still crawling beneath its hastily reapplied makeup and perfume.

Deliberately, Alicia raised her chin.

“What _is_ it, Sherlock, honestly?” demanded a female voice from the corridor. “The violin’s been bad enough ever since John got married, but a few manners wouldn’t go—oh! Is that a client? At last, something to take your mind off—”

“We’ll need tea,” Sherlock interrupted without shifting his eyes from Alicia. “Strong. This lady has clearly been recently assaulted, and by someone who believes himself untouchable. Quite rightly.”

He smiled thinly.

“Until now. You can come straight upstairs, Lady….”

“Smallwood,” Alicia supplied.

“Lady Smallwood,” he nodded, gesturing inside. “I’ll take the case.”

Alicia went in. This time, she’d come to the right brother.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: The first name of Lady Smallwood is a [subject of some confusion](http://callie-ariane.tumblr.com/post/155611171152/what-the-hell-is-that-womans-name). I have gone with Alicia, because Sherlock is famous for getting the unimportant part of people’s names wrong, and I considered the update in the DVD version could be a correction. Alternatively, in the same way she hands Mycroft the card with her ‘private number’, it is attached to a card with her ‘private name’, the one by which she goes by with her friends, and thus the name she would most likely consider herself inside her own head.


End file.
